Any Secret to getting the top nut off an Airhead Triple Tree?

...but first, we have to figure out a way to get yer nuts off

Nice work, Beather. We knew you could do it!

Alloy? They make big ass 36 mm sockets out of aluminium? I never knew.

I'm not going to respond to that.

Oh man, dont get Flatulator started again...

With a name like Beater, I'd a thought he got it figured out.

+1. Apply heat to the nut. Then, put the socket on the nut and give it a good whack with a hammer. Apply an impact driver to it until loose. Repeat Kroil, heat and impact driver cycle until you're done.

Alloys are a blend of two metals, neither one of which has to be aluminum.

Steel is an alloy.

I have a flat spanner that works great for it. I believe it comes from a Porsche 356 tool kit to do the generator belt nut.

Either way its fully flat, and the handle has a hole for a 1/2" breaker bar.

They're like 20 bucks.



Oh and big bonus, no offset.

By this I mean if you use a 36mm socket, you have 1-2" from the bolt to where the leverage is applied, that offset makes wrestling everything into place then applying the high torque required quite difficult.

With a tool like this the torque is on plane w/ the nut, so it doesn't twist or roll around.

A fork tube, not a slider.

What worked for me was a lot of penetrating oil + heat + hammering on the bmw tool. I tried a breaker bar, but that was useless. I spent many days on that issue.

You are correct.

Apologies for the cross-thread (attempt at) humor.

"Alloy" ... does NOT mean ALUMINUM !

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=642533

This topic came up somewhere else - consensus was impact was the thing , and that the flat spanner from the older Airhead toolkits was strong enough to move most.

I tried a 3 ft breaker , and couldn't shift the nuts on my G/S, but the flat spanner from the /7 and a belt from a rubber mallet freed them no trouble.

On my well worn G/S tightening down the centre cap nut changes the steering head bearing adjustment by almost a third of a turn , so when the time comes to reassemble the forks tighten it down in stages, checking the bearing adjustment as you do - no point in us both crushing a set of bearings------.

Mine came loose at the start of a 3 day ride last weekend.I tightened it with that short ring spanner in the tool kit (not my toolkit,the R90S on the ride had one) and it stayed for the 1,000km.Maybe I should check it again sometime.

"That man has some strangely large wrists. Very strange"

I Hve never had a problem loosening them with the toolkit wrench and blws from a big hammer. When one retightening, place a drop of paint on the perimeter of these nuts so you can monitor if one starts to looen. If it does, remove it and retorque it with 2 drops of blue loctite. If you see wear marks on the nut/topclamp from shuffling, consider adding abit of shim stock to take up slack betwen the hole and center nut flange. It is movement here that will loosen the nut over time. Remove that slack and reduce movement under load.

why would you stick a red hot piece of steel into a bucket of volatile petrolatum:eek1?

Because we were all 14 once. Me personally lit a stick of dynamite and went fishing. Worked great. Didn't really need a reason (that made sense). Just something to do.

For quenching...

Because oil, as typically used in this scenario like good old motor oil, has a high enough flash point that it won't just burst into flame before quenching the workpiece to below ignition point. Sometimes you may get a little flash of flame at the surface, but the workpiece must be thrust in quickly so that it quenches and cools evenly. So even if you do see a flash, it quickly drowns out in the oil. In other words, oil isn't very volatile at normal temperatures.

Oil quenching, especially for pieces destined to be tooling or needing that kind of durability, typically provides a better hardening and temper than water which on some steels makes the piece too brittle and more care must be used in retreating to draw the temper of the steel.